


An Alternative Solution

by Darkflame1808



Series: Whumptober 2019 [4]
Category: Thunderbirds, Thunderbirds (2015), Thunderbirds are go!
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Gen, Guns, Human shield, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Whumptober 2019, apologies for grammar, gun point, have not looked over any of this since writing it whoops, hostages, no beta we die like men, rescue gone wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:21:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25282294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkflame1808/pseuds/Darkflame1808
Summary: When Alan and Virgil are sent on a rescue to a once abandoned mine they are presented with much worse than a simple sinkhole.
Relationships: Virgil Tracy & Alan Tracy
Series: Whumptober 2019 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1684582
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	1. Gun Point

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for this one. I remember it as quite rushed, but thought I would chuck it up on here anyway, so hope you do enjoy :)  
> If there is something wrong (e.g. editing mistakes) don't hesitate to point it out and let me know 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Thunderbirds or any of the characters from the show (or from TAG). I just want to make cool stories :)

The mine seemed abandoned. Silent, eerie, and completely empty, apart from the two IR operatives that had just entered. Their bright blue suits stood out against the dark browns and greys of the entrance to the mineshaft. Their torches lit up areas, revealing rats that would scurry away and spider webs bigger than the wings of Thunderbird 2. 

For this mission Alan and Virgil had been sent. They took Thunderbird 2 along with the pods, specifically the mole, for the job. They were told there had been recent activity from the machines within the abandoned mine. They had been reactivated, and the area was in danger of becoming one giant sinkhole. 

So the two of them quickly got to work. They took the mole pod down into the mine with Virgil’s exosuit ready for use. 

The sounds of the mole pod echoed off the walls, bouncing back and telling the two how empty it really was down there. However, they could also hear the low humming of machinery in use. 

Once they reached the bottom of the mineshaft, the two hopped out of the pod, and Virgil donned his exosuit. They continued on foot as the mole could disrupt the structural integrity of the caves, which is what they were trying to avoid. 

They found the machines and quickly got to work on stopping it. John tried to help as much as possible, but the interference from the surrounding metal stopped him from doing much more than telling them one sentence tips. It was fine, Virgil figured out the machine after looking over a scan of it, and he figured out how to disengage it. 

It was as he stopped away from Alan that all hell broke less. 

Virgil approached the machine cautiously, his mind ready for anything, and his claws at the ready. The machine continued to whirr and whine, the drill attached winding further into the ground and shaking the floor beneath their feet. Alan leaned against a wall, trying to steady himself as the shaking increased.

“V-V-Virg-g-g-il-l,” he said, the shaking causing his throat to stutter along the word. “C-c-cou-u-ld you p-p-pleas-se t-tu-u-rn it-t o-o-off?”

Virgil managed to grab onto the machine, and after slipping his hand out of his claw, managed to disable the machine. It whined in resistance before winding down, the shaking stopping and the noise dying out.

He turned back around to face Alan only to come see a man with half of his face covered. In his arms was Alan.

“V-Virgil,” he gasped out, his voice breathy as he was choked by the man behind him.

“Shut it,” the man snarled, eyes narrowing at Virgil as he spoke. “You are to hand over the plane, or the kid dies.”

Virgil stood frozen, eyes wide as they flickered between his brother’s assailant and him.

“Don’t,” Alan managed to get out.

The sound of a gun cocking drew his attention, and he watched as the man raised a handgun against Alan’s head.

The young man whimpered slightly as the cold steel of the muzzle pressed against his temple.

“The ship. Or he dies.”


	2. Human Shield

Time slows for a moment. He doesn’t register the sound of heavy footsteps behind him, the clicking of guns and the quiet breathing of the men behind him. All he could see was Alan. Alan gasping for breath. Alan claws at a stranger’s arm around his throat. Alan with a gun pressed to his temple. Alan squirming away from the muzzle of a gun. 

He could vaguely hear John’s crackling voice in his ear, telling him to stand down. To hand over TB2 because he can disable it. But that doesn’t register either. 

All he can see is Alan.

“No funny business,” the guys said. He hitches Alan up higher, the boy’s head rolling on his shoulders, his eyes almost rolling back into his skull. “I want to be flying that plane out of here, and if I can’t, then you’ll be coming down with me.”

Virgil slowly nodded, his hands raising after he slipped them out of the Jaws of Life. The man slightly loosened his hold on Alan, allowing the young man to take a huge gasp, his eyes clearing slightly. The gun continued to press into his temple though. 

“Now, hand over the controls.” He held his hand out, and Virgil assumed it was for his wrist controller. He reached towards his hand and undid the locking mechanism that kept the watch firmly on his wrist, even through the hardest of rescues. After a bit of wriggling he managed to get it off, holding it away from his wrist. Slowly he approached the man who was holding Alan, reaching forward with the hand carrying the controller.

He locked eyes with Alan, and in that moment, Alan knew what his older brother was going to do.

And he knew how stupid it was. 

He minutely shook his head, hoping his captor wouldn’t notice, but the tightening of the vice like grip around his neck informed him that they had noticed. 

Virgil took another step forward, his heart pounding in anticipation of what he was about to do. This could go very wrong very quickly.

He took another step forward, now in perfect position, and perfect striking distance. The bad guy’s eyes flickered down to Alan, and Virgil lunged.

His hand flew out to stay in between the gun and Alan’s head, and he roughly pushed Alan away, but keeping his body between his youngest brother and the rest of the goons.

A gunshot went off.

The guy in front of him looked at him with wide eyes, the gun pressed up against Virgil’s abdomen instead of his hand, but nowhere near Alan. That was all that mattered. 

Alan looked up at him from where he was on the ground, his leg pulled up towards him and the other extended, his bright blue eyes wide and disbelieving of what his older brother had just done. 

Virgil smiled down at him reassuringly before his knees crumpled below him and he fell to the floor. 

The goons scrambled. They were never going to shoot. They weren’t meant to. They were simple thieves, they didn’t want to kill anyone. Most of their guns were empty. Except the one. 

Alan scrambled forward, pressing down on the blooming blood stain to the right of Virgil’s belly button. Virgil groaned in protest of the added pain, but Alan didn’t relent. 

“That was stupid, Virge. They weren’t going to shoot me. They were wimps. Why’d you do that?”

“Couldn’t risk… that,” he managed to get out.

Alan looked up and around, panicking. There was no way he would be able to drag his heaviest brother all the way back to the pod. Shit.

How were they going to get out of here?


	3. Blanket (Fluffember Chapter)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Technically, this was from @gumnut 's Fluffember challenge after Whumptober ended, but I tied it into this story as it needed an ending and I loved the prompt :)

“Just go, Allie. Get… back to Two,” Virgil pushed out, his hands trying to pull Alan off of him. The blond shook his head vehemently. 

“I’m not leaving you here. I’m not leaving you to die!” Alan shouted back. Virgil cringed at the noise, and he looked away from the tears in Alan’s eyes. 

“You’re not being… buried… here with… me. Go… save yourself. Go Allie!”

He immediately started coughing, his throat raw and lungs spasming. He struggled to draw in another breath through the pain. God it hurt. Why did it have to hurt so much? Couldn’t he just go peacefully? After everything he had done, after all the people he had helped, couldn’t fate give him this, just this once? If he was going to die down here, couldn’t he go without the pain?

The walls seemed to close in on him, getting closer so that it was just he and Alan. That was his entire world. The walls were shaking and trembling around him, but he could only focus on the shaking and trembling of Alan’s hands as he tried to stop the blood pouring out of his side. 

“You are not going to die alone down here. I can’t do that. I’m not letting you!”

An idea sparked to life in his brain, and Alan looked up. He visually tracked the distance to the Pod and the amount of time it would take to retrieve what he wanted. Maybe it won’t save Virgil, but it might just help him.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” he promised, and left a kiss on Virgil’s hairline. 

He jumped away from Virgil and sprinted back to the Pod. The cave gave another warning grumble, and Alan increased the pace. He needed to get Virge out of here. Or at least get him comfortable and hunker down with his big brother.

Sure, neither of them will survive if that happened, but at least Virgil won’t be alone in his last moments.

Nor will Alan.

Because even if he leaves Virgil here, even if he saved himself, he would not go home. He wouldn’t be able to face his family knowing that he left Virgil to die. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he left his older brother to face death alone. 

With swift movements, Alan opened the Pod and scrambled into the back seat. He dug through a few different crates before finding what he was looking for.

Triumphantly, he held up his prize before grabbing a few more supplies and climbing back out of the Pod. He ran back to Virgil, and once he found him again, he checked his vitals. Dropping, and fast. 

“I'm back Virge,” he told him quietly, one hand burying itself in his hair and the other beginning to clean what he could access of the wound. As gently as he could, he peeled the uniform away, using a small, hand held laser cutter, he removed the surrounding uniform. If they had any chance of getting out of here, then Alan needed to staunch the blood flow. 

With steady hands, he soaked a piece of wound pad in saline and started to dab at the wound. Virgil groaned and whined beneath his hands, but Alan remained consistent on the pressure he was applying and the thoroughness of his cleaning. It would do no good to let Virgil get an infection if he was ever going to have a chance at surviving this. 

Once Alan was satisfied with the cleaning of the bullet hole, he went about dressing it better. He took a ball of wound padding and applied it to the wound before pressing down. Virgil let out a high pitched whine, his voice high and thready as he keened in pain. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” Alan repeated over and over, hoping for some forgiveness from his injured brother. God, if they got through this, Alan hoped Virgil wouldn't blame him for this. He was why Virgl was hurt. He should've gotten away from the guy.

And then Virgil had to go and be a hero.

And now, here Alan was, trying to plug a bullet hole.

Before he could get completely lost in his spiralling thoughts, Virgil keened again, high and thin, his voice a few octaves up from its normal tone. Alan then remembered what else he got from the Pod; his main objective.

He reached behind him with one hand- the one that had been combing through Virgil’s hair- and snagged his prized possession. “Hey Virge, I got something that's much better. Hopefully it'll make you feel better, sure helps the kids.”

Virgil didn't respond, as he hadn't been since Alan had gotten back. His eyes remained tightly screwed shut against the torrent of pain, and all of his many muscles were tense and trembling, much like the walls of the cave. 

Alan draped the blanket he had retrieved over Virgil. It was cold in the cave, or, Alan’s suit was telling him it was cold. And Virgil, spilling blood onto the floor and now having a hole in his suit meant that it could no longer be temperature controlled. The cold was leaking in while his blood was leaking out. 

But Alan had tried to find a small comfort for his brother. And that comfort came from the blanket they kept in each vehicle. 

Due to the type of job they had, they did tend to run into children during rescues. And many of these kids were in the early stages of shock, or injured themselves. So, it was IR protocol t have at least one blanket in every vehicle at all times, more in the bigger ones. Thunderbird Two easily had the most, as it had the most space to store blankets, and usually had the most contact with children. Whenever they were going on a rescue that they knew would have many children around, they took extra blankets from the island, going so far as to bring personal ones sometimes. Each blanket was different to add that personal touch and care to each child, make them feel some specialness in whatever shitty situation they had found themselves in. 

It was one of these many blankets that Alan had taken from the Pod, hoping to bring Virgil som elf the comfort that kids seemed to draw from these blankets. This one in particular was soft and warm; fluffy but clearly hand made, and with thick wool strands making up to blanket. 

Immediately, Virgil snuggles into the soft material, his head ducking down to rest on the cloudy feeling wool. He still panted in pain and tears were falling from his eyes and travelling down over his cheekbones before crawling under his collar. He shivI red, but let the feeling of the blanket on top of him calm him down. It let him hold onto some piece of reality that wasn't pain. He knew that Alan was trying his best, and that the pain spreading from his side was from his little brother’s efforts to save him.

But the blanket helped so much. It was some piece of reality that he could ground himself with. Something to hold onto that wasn't spreading fire through his veins.

It was something.

And how his little brother knew he needed it, he wasn't sure.

But by God, Virgil was glad he was here.

He didn't want to be alone.

Don't leave him alone.

  
  



End file.
